Garment-supporter.



No. 721,902. PATENTED MAR. 3, 1903.

I 0. S. LIPPINOOTT.

GARMENT SUPPORTER.

APPLIOATION FILED FEB. 23. 1902.

N0 MODEL.

NrTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OLIVER S. LIPPINOOTT, OF CAMDEN, JERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO FREDERICK W. POEPPEL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

GARM ENT-SUPPORTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 721,902, dated March 3, 1903.

Application filed February 28. 1902. Serial No. 96,130. ,(No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OLIVER S. LIPPINCOTT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Camden, in the county of Camden and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Garment-Supporter, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to garment-supporters, and has for its object to provide a combined skirt-supporter and shirt-waist holder adapted for maintaining these garments in their proper relative positions, and particularly to provide a device of this class which may be readily applied, which may remain at tached to. the skirt-band, while allowing the shirt-waist to be readily engaged therewith and disengaged therefrom, and which when in place will not interfere with theordinary belt or waist-ribbon and will not form an objectionable projection at the waist-line.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportion, and minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a supporter constructed in accordance with the invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional View. Fig. 3 is an inner face view or elevation. Fig. 4 is a similar view showing the central portion of the blank before it is folded to form the clasp. Fig. 5 is a detailed view of the lever.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

The supporter comprises,essentially, a central clasp l and side loops 2. The clasp consists of a folded or hook-shaped plate member, preferably integral with the plate members forming the loops 2', all of said plate members being struck from a common blank of sheet metal, as indicated in Fig. 4, in order to minimize the cost of manufacture. In the loop formed by the intermediate plate member is arranged a doubled or folded springplate 3, provided with rearward projections 4,

engaging openings 5 in the inner wall of the loop. Also the surfaces of the jaws formed by the spring-plate are roughened, serrated, or spurred to form a suitable frictional engagement with the material of the skirt-band. Also the rear or outer wall of the looped central plate member is upset, as at 6, to receive the head 7 of the clasp-lever 8, said lever having trunnions 9, mounted inupset bearings 10 at the ends of a slot 11, also formed in the rear or outer wall of the central plate member. When the lever is moved to its normal position parallel with the plate or body portion of the supporter,'the movable jaw of the claspplate is forced into contact with the portion of a garment which has been arranged in the clasp, and the supporter is thereby firmly secured in place. The openings in the loops 2 are restricted or contracted toward their upper ends, and therefore by catching small bunches or pinches of the fabric of the shirtwaist in the lower and larger portions of the loops, drawing such bunches through the openings and then forcing them upward into the contracted portions of the openings, they are secured, and the shirt-waist is thereby fastened against upward displacement. As an additional security and to prevent lateral displacement a waist-cord 12 maybe engaged with openings 13 in the ends of the plate or body. portion of the clasp, said cord being adapted to extend around the waist of the wearer. As the projection of the looped central portion of the main plate is but slight, only suificient to receive the thickness of the waistband, the ordinary belt or waist-ribbon may be extended thereover to entirely conceal the supporter without causing an objectionable projection.

It will be noted that by providing shirtwaist-engaging loops at opposite sides of the intermediate skirt-band-engaging clasp twist ing, tilting, or other displacement of the supporter is prevented, and by providing openings in the loops which are enlarged at their lowerends it is possible after the clasp has been engaged with the skirt-band for the wearer with the ,thumb and forefingers to grasp pinches or bunches of the shirt-waist in the enlarged portions of the openings and crowd them upward, the wearer meanwhile standing in a normal position, and thus providing for the fastening of the shirt-Waist in exactly the desired position with relation to the skirt, or, in other words, Without permitting undue looseness at the back or causing undesirable strain,which would tend to throw the weight of the skirt upon the shirt-waist. The disengagement of the shirt-waist is effected as readily as the engagement thereof, inasmuch as it is only necessary to push the bunches or pinches of the fabric downward to loosen them from the contracted or V- shaped openings and allow them to slip through, thus releasing the shirt-waist without necessitating the removal of the supporter from the skirt-band.

It will be noted that in the drawings I have not illustrated specifically and individually new loops for engaging,the material of one garment or a specifically new clasp for engaging the other garment, as these parts, and particularly the clasp, may be varied in construction without departing from the spirit of my invention; but I have illustrated and described a device embodying as an essential element a plate provided with spaced integral loops for engaging pinches or bunches of a garment and resisting strain in one direction and an integrally-folded intermediate member for the reception of a clasp to engage another garment and resist strain thereof in the opposite direction from that applied to the first-named garment. In this way I have adapted the garment-supporter embodying my invention for performing the particular function describednamely, of preventing the rising or creeping of a shirt-waist and the dropping or downward creeping of the skirt and whereas neither of the garment-engaging devices individuallyis specifically new, so far as I am aware, it is new to provide a garment-supporter with spaced garment-engaging means for resisting strain in one direction and an intermediate garment-engaging device for resisting strain in the opposite direction, the particular advantage of providing spaced means for engaging the shirt-Waist and an intermediate means for engaging the skirt-band residingin the fact that the respective garment-engaging devices may be compactly arranged to occupy a small space vertically, (when in use,) so that the entire supporter may be covered by a belt or waist-ribbon of the ordinary width, and residing, furthermore, in the fact that tilting of the supporter by reason of unequal strain, due to the irregular movements of the wearer, is prevented, and at the same time the engagement of the shirt-waist with the supporter can be effected by the wearer while standing naturally in an upright position to insure the smooth and even fitting of the garment and an equal distribution of such downward strain as may be applied thereto by the weight of the garment engaged by the intermediate device.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new isl. A garment-supporter comprising a plate provided at the ends thereof with upwardlytapering shirt-waist-engaging slots and having a central portion bent downward to form a hook-shaped member, and means for securing a skirt-band in said hook.

2. A garment-supporter comprising a plate bent to form a central hook-shaped member, a spring-clasp seated in said hook, means for tighteningsaid clasp upon a garment, and lateral extensions at the ends of the plate forming said hook, the said extensions being provided with upwardly-tapering slots.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto aflixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

OLIVER S. LIPPINCOTT.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM A. EARLE, NELSON CHEW. 

